Average Brit spends £1,000 on clothes per year

Digital reporter

The average Brit spends over £1,000 on new clothes every year, shops for new gear every two months - but leaves a third of it hanging in the wardrobe, according to new research.

A survey of 2,000 adults in the UK found that there are 95 items hanging up in the average woman’s wardrobe, although they wear just 43 per cent of them once a week or more.

In fact, women say that they NEVER wear six per cent of their clothes, and seven per cent of items have been worn just once.

Fabric care experts Ariel commissioned the study, and their Fibre Scientist Neil Lant said: “Our results found that women own more items of clothing, but wear fewer of them, than men. On average, women own 27 more pieces of clothing than their male counterparts.”

The top reasons women cite for regularly returning to their most-worn clothes are that they launder well in the washing machine, they can go a long time between washes and they give the wearer the most confidence.

The study also found that new clothes can have a psychological impact on women, with seven in 10 saying they go shopping purely because they love the ‘just-bought’ feeling of a new item.

Nearly 6 in 10 Brits keep garments set aside for special occasions, and a fifth think that the ones they don’t wear are too hard to care for due to handwashing or dry cleaning restrictions.

A quarter of women also say that wearing a brand new item of clothing for the first time helps them feel like themselves.

The research also discovered that eight out of 10 women feel their happiest and most confident when they’re wearing new clothes.

But when clothes aren’t new, women often feel lacklustre and dull, which leads to a loss of confidence.

This increases for 18-24 year old women, with six out of 10 saying that they feel average or mediocre when they’re not sporting a new outfit.

Ambassador for Ariel’s Redefine Clean campaign Louise Redknapp said: “It’s no secret that we all love new clothes. But, we all have our favourite pieces that we want to take care of, so we can wear them again and again.

“Clean isn’t just about being stain-free, it’s about colours being bright and whites being brilliant, preserving that just bought feeling for longer, so we can have the confidence to take on any challenge.